


A Child At Heart

by Treble (Treblesanders)



Category: Sanders Sides, Thomas Sanders
Genre: Angst, Child Patton, Gen, M/M, Sanders Sides (Video Blogging RPF), Sanders Sides - Freeform, Serious Injuries, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-12
Updated: 2017-10-12
Packaged: 2019-01-16 06:44:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12337560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Treblesanders/pseuds/Treble
Summary: Events in Thomas’ life would have alternate effects on the different aspects of his personality. The trait that would normally undergo the most noticeable change though, was always Patton. For one reason or another, Patton would go through a reverse aging process depending on the severity of the event, and how much it affected Thomas’ emotions. The effect was usually temporary. Although, it would always throw the other sides for a loop whenever they saw Patton reduced to an overbearing teenager. He would always act unfazed by the sudden change.But, In the case of Thomas suffering significant trauma, Patton is brought all the way down to the equivalent of a six year old.





	A Child At Heart

**Author's Note:**

> I know someone will probably try to bring this up. I left Virgil out on purpose. I am not confident in my ability to write for him, and I wanted to have this scene play out with just the other sides. I'm sorry if this upsets anyone.

Patton yawned and stretched his arms up. He didn’t expect to have slept for so long. Normally he was the first one awake. Today just felt a little different to him though. With a quick energetic motion he threw off the bed covers and hopped off the mattress. He snatched up his glasses and then bounded over to his bedroom door. Something made him pause though. 

_‘Why is my door handle so high up?’_

Patton had to lift his hand to eye-height before he could reach the handle. The knob turned easy enough though so he didn’t dwell on it for too long. As he stepped into the hall he caught sight of Roman out of the corner of his eye. The creative trait had made his way down the hall and into the kitchen. Morality closed the door to his room and walked down the hall after Roman.

Roman had grown accustomed to eating breakfast on a schedule. So, when he came into the kitchen to find no food prepared, and no Patton humming a happy tune, he was a little distraught. 

“Patton?” Roman turned and called down the hall. 

“On my way, kiddo.” Came Patton’s prepubescent little reply.

Roman gasped and then slapped a hand over his mouth when he saw the state that Patton was in. The creative trait had witnessed Patton transformed into a teenager on multiple occasions. Only after the fact did he ever learn that something had struck a mighty blow to Thomas’ feelings. 

Right now, was much worse. Roman could not fathom what tragic event Thomas’ was going through at this point, but he knew it was traumatic. 

“Oh my dear brave Patton. What on earth happened?” The prince set aside his unsatiated hunger to go and kneel before Morality. He placed his hands upon Patton’s shoulders and fixed him with a deeply concerned expression.

Patton simply tilted his head to the side and gave Roman a confused look. “Now, I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He then chuckled in a way that sounded off for someone his size.

At this point Logan entered the common area. He reached the kitchen and then stopped. The scene before him was slightly puzzling. There was a child present, dressed exactly like Patton, all the way down to the black glasses and grey cardigan. He took a moment to collect his thoughts and tried to make sense of what he was seeing. 

Then it hit him. “Patton?” He cocked an eyebrow, crossed one arm over his chest and used the other hand to hold his chin. His eyes narrowed on the little boy as he waited for some kind of reply.

Hearing his name Patton looked over his shoulder at Logan and smiled. “Oh, hi Logan! Good to see you’re awake. You sure seem taller today.” Patton gave his usual brilliant smile and laughed happily to himself.

Roman and Logan shared a worried look with each other. Both of them knew that Thomas must be in some kind of emotional distress. Logan was the first to speak up. “Perhaps it would be mutually beneficial if one of us were to go and check on Thomas?” Logan’s expression was a steady mixture of ‘not this again’ and deep concern. 

“Very well!” Roman lept up with a little extra enthusiasm, a big cheesy perched upon his face. “I bequeath the young Morality to you, Logan. Keep him safe.” Roman then made his dramatic exit and sank down into Thomas’ world.

When Creativity had fully left the mindspace Logan took a few steps closer to Patton and crouched down. Logic and Morality were now on eye level with each other.

Patton suddenly spun around on his heels to look at Logan, a large grin played on his face. “Hey kiddo! Where is Roman off to?” Other than being turned into a child Patton still had all of his exuberantly happy personality.

“I still find it perplexing, why Thomas’ emotional distress, would invoke such a transformation to occur with you.” Logan said this all the while closely studying his young moral counterpart. 

Once again Patton tilted his head in a confused manner. “Thomas is de-stressed? What was he so stressed about, Teach?” Morality started to bounce in place.

“N-No… Not ‘destress’.” Logan let out a frustrated sigh. “Di-stress, Thomas’ is in some kind of emotional distress. Which is why you are currently an adult trapped in the body of a child.” He then made a small gesture with his hand towards Patton. 

Patton finally took a moment to look down at himself. Everything was tiny, his hands, his shoes, even his cardigan had seemingly shrunk to fit his now child-sized body. As he finished looking himself over he suddenly remembered why this had happened. The terrible truth of the situation hit him so hard emotionally that he cried out, as if in pain, and crumpled to the ground. He then started to sob, uncontrollably.

Logan was taken aback by Patton’s cry. Feelings were never his area of expertise. Despite the numerous times Patton had taken him into his room, the effect always wore off… 

_THAT’S IT!_

Logan knew what he had to do to remedy the situation. In one fluid motion Logic scooped Morality up into his arms and dashed off to Patton’s room. 

The door to Patton’s room was flung open. Logan promptly carried the child-sized moral trait over to his bed and sat down with him. For a couple of awkward minutes Logan just stayed still, holding Patton against his shoulder as the young trait continued to cry. Then, as the effects of Patton’s room began to sink in Logan was able to relax a bit and started to rock back and forth all the while still holding tightly onto his moral counterpart.

“Patton, I’m sorry that you are sad. What exactly happened to Thomas?” Logan was also starting to worry that Roman had not returned yet.

Patton sniffed and brought an arm up to wipe his eyes. He mustered as much strength as he could to speak up. “Th-Thomas…” sniff “Thomas lost a friend…” sniff. 

The daunting realization of the situation took Logan by surprise. “Which friend did he lose?”

Patton’s sobs started anew and Logan had to concede that he wasn’t going to get a direct answer out of him.

At this point Roman came back and bursted into Patton’s room. “Logan, there is something very wrong with Thomas.” The creative trait seemed rather distraught about something.

Logan gave Roman a quizzical look. “Do you mind elaborating?” The logical trait was growing more and more impatient with the circles he was being pulled in.

Roman started talking fast and his breathing was erratic. “Thomas is in the hospital and there are people gathered around him and I couldn’t seem to get a response from Thomas when I tried talking to him and...and…” Roman broke down. Tears started to stream down his cheeks.

“Roman, please, calm down. Take a deep breath. What do you mean Thomas wasn't responding?” Logan had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. 

Patton spoke up suddenly even though he was still crying. “Lo-Logan...th-there was an accident.”

Logan's eyes grew wide at the word accident. A flood of memories came back to him. The sound of screeching tires, crunching metal, people screaming. “Oh no…” The words fell from his mouth. He took this moment to gently lay Patton down on his bed. Next he sank down into the real world so that he could confirm his suspicions. 

What he saw was worse than he imagined. Thomas was lying on a hospital bed and there were multiple doctors scurrying around him. A thick white cast was over his right arm and his face was all bruised. Logan could hear the unsteady heartbeat as it blipped on the monitor. The condition that Thomas was in caused Logan to feel sad and lost. He quickly returned to the mindscape. 

When Logan returned to Patton's room the other two traits were still crying. Everything suddenly made sense to Logan. “Thomas was...Thomas was in a car accident. He never lost a friend...he was scared about losing his own life…” 

Coming to this realization caused a snowball effect. Patton returned to his normal size. Both Roman and Patton stopped crying, and, as the doctors finally brought Thomas to a stable condition, Thomas woke up. 

The emotional trauma had come from Thomas’ fear of dying. 

The doctors soon gave Thomas’ friends the okay to come in. As they all came in to gather around and give him comfort, love, and support things finally started to quiet down in the mindscape. 

Logan spent a little more time in Patton's room, providing him and Roman with comfort and lighthearted conversation about the day's events. 

As Thomas began to feel better, so too did the aspects of his personality.

The End.


End file.
